Marantz HD880 Experts and Non, What Do I Have?

stevensctt

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Picked up a pair of HD880 on Friday (local Craigslist). Very quick audition/inspection, offered $100 and I was gone with the speakers.

The Good:

Cosmetically perfect, no dings, dents scratches, clean faceplate, no scratches to the base unit

One supertweeter faceplate as well one tweeter faceplate still had the protective plastic film installed (look yellowish in photos).

All drivers (except woofer) working.

Supertweeter, tweeter and midrange pots all functional on both.

Both grills included, all pegs intact. One grill is flawless, the other has a very small hole at the bottom (not really noticeable). Both Marantz badges affixed.

The Bad (not so bad, mostly usual, some unusual)

Woofers require refoaming (not really an issue)

Before picking-up, I assumed these were wood veneer. These were vinyl. At home, there was lift to the laminate on the top edge of one speaker. Pulled it back and amazingly the vinyl did not seem to have any adhesive o the MDF. Continued and the vinyl on the top and sides (both speakers) came off is one single piece, like gift wrapping, took about 15 secs to come off, no glue residue.

The vinyl on the back as well as the front panels below the drivers was applied with adhesive, but easily removed with a heat gun.

The banding on the rear perimeter of both speakers is actually a wood veneer. This is a strange one! (see photo).

Inspecting the speakers yesterday to check serial numbers, I discovered two different speaker connection faceplates. Obviously not a matched pair and probably different model years. (see photos)

Today I removed the woofers and discovered one speaker used common phillips head screws, the other torx head screws.

Once removed, discovered two different crossovers (see photos).

Lastly, woofers have same part number except for last six numbers/letters.
Probably the same with mids and tweeters.

I may continue working with these, install wood veneer, refoam woofers, find matching crossovers....or part out and sell and make a 500% profit.

I would prefer to keep and restore, great looking speakers IMO.

So looking for opinions on what I have. Mostly concerned with the different crossovers and if I replace crossovers, which to use? Might be best to find a matching pair.

Comments welcomed.

Five more photos in next post.
 

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More HD880 Photos

More photos:
 

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What do you have, well a couple of nice classic Marantz speakers. Marantz was one of the few who could pull off a good sounding four way design. So many four ways of that era sounded tinny and brittle. These had an honest low end and well balance upper supporting half. I had the 770's and thought them quite nice, I think even better of the 880's like yours. Make the repairs and enjoy them, they are a quality long past.
DC
 
What do you have, well a couple of nice classic Marantz speakers. Marantz was one of the few who could pull off a good sounding four way design. So many four ways of that era sounded tinny and brittle. These had an honest low end and well balance upper supporting half. I had the 770's and thought them quite nice, I think even better of the 880's like yours. Make the repairs and enjoy them, they are a quality long past.
DC

Thanks, I intend to do so. Hoping to find a matched pair of crossovers rather than finding a single crossover to pair with an existing. Or maybe there is no real difference between the unmatched crossovers I have?

Anyone know of a company, organization, individual providing HD880 crossovers?
 
You should be fine with either xover as they both function & split signal as designed- just a differant layout and part types. You might tink about replacing the electrolytic caps with same type fresh ones from Erse or PE. Those 'lytics tend to drift and leak/ dry out considerably with time. The inductors I am not concerned about. If the caps are all matched values you might consider replacing all the polys with new ones from Erse or PE and come away with a better matched sound.
DC
 
You should be fine with either xover as they both function & split signal as designed- just a differant layout and part types. You might tink about replacing the electrolytic caps with same type fresh ones from Erse or PE. Those 'lytics tend to drift and leak/ dry out considerably with time. The inductors I am not concerned about. If the caps are all matched values you might consider replacing all the polys with new ones from Erse or PE and come away with a better matched sound.
DC

All I know is that 99% of Marantz speakers are garbage, and these have some street cred. I an going to audition a pair in a few days that are not for sale.
 
I found a pair of 550 at VV for $8.99 but I passed cuz I don't need more speakers. If they had been 880's I might have grabbed them.
 
What type of speakers are in the last photo m16? The last photo is not hd880!

From info found elsewhere, the woofers seem to be the correct HD880 part #. But, what should have been obvious, this pair is not mirror imaged. Either have two right or two left speakers.

Is this correct? Shouldn't the pairs be mirrored?
 
Whoa, an unusual pair of HD880's indeed! From my knowledge, they appear to be a VERY early production due to low sequence #, especially the one with three zeros. Notice they used the same black phillips screws used on the first gen HD's. They were using whatever they had in the production facility to build the first ones before the actual implemented parts arrived. Also likely why you see the first gen hued satin gold fascia tweeters instead of the silver. Umm, the caps in the HD's are poly. The only electrolytic is the one you see right in front that is butterworth bridged. And no, HD880's were not made mirrored, none of the HD/DS lines were. I knew there were some HD880's that were built with early HD leftover hardware, just never seen any. I have an early brochure showing the gold hued tweeters, and black phillips screws. The real headscratcher to me though, is the vinyl laminate they had. Perhaps whomever bought them, did not like the real wood veneer, or they offered a cheaper trim option that significantly lowered the price of them. :scratch2:
 
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Hmmm, I just noticed that yours are bare MDF inside. The other pairs I have seen, including the three pairs I've owned, have all had walnut veneer inside to further help with damping of woofer transients, and increase rigidity of cabinets. While you're at it, if you have any veneer leftover, you can put it inside of cabinets.

On another note, this is coming up on four months later, have you made any progress with them? Do you still have them?
 
Walnut veneer on the inside? Very unususal.

Anyway, had the woofers refoamed, acquired matching crossovers and applied walnut veneer, hand rubbed tongue oil finish.

The speakers turned out well and they sounded OK. A well rounded sound but nothing particularly exceptional, very plain vanilla. I have since sold the HD880s but here are some completed photos.
 

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They turned out very Nice indeed! Plain vanilla sound? lol! Where did you get the Xovers from, and what did you do with your old ones? I would have left them alone if it were me, and your prognosis of them after installing other Xovers leaves me to believe that there is something wrong with the Xovers you installed. I have the same issue with one of my two remaining pairs. They still sound great to me, but they sound a bit short of breath, like something's hollding them back. I know the Xovers are out of spec range. One of my pairs a while back, I tried a different approach with crossover points, which yielded a noticeable improvement in upper midrange end and high end. Also I notice you ran yours without Vari-Q plugs. I've ran mine like that and I notice the bass drowns out the mids and highs. They are better balanced with plugs in place. If you had only tinkered with them and given them a chance to shine, I'm sure you would have kept them. They are great speakers.
 
They turned out very Nice indeed! Plain vanilla sound? lol! Where did you get the Xovers from, and what did you do with your old ones? I would have left them alone if it were me, and your prognosis of them after installing other Xovers leaves me to believe that there is something wrong with the Xovers you installed. I have the same issue with one of my two remaining pairs. They still sound great to me, but they sound a bit short of breath, like something's hollding them back. I know the Xovers are out of spec range. One of my pairs a while back, I tried a different approach with crossover points, which yielded a noticeable improvement in upper midrange end and high end. Also I notice you ran yours without Vari-Q plugs. I've ran mine like that and I notice the bass drowns out the mids and highs. They are better balanced with plugs in place. If you had only tinkered with them and given them a chance to shine, I'm sure you would have kept them. They are great speakers.

I bought the Xovers on eBay and still have the other crossovers. I also have all attenuators, knobs and wiring harness. Also have two or three different attenuator faceplates as there were at least three different versions.

Can't be sure, but I believe the Xovers were/are 100% functional. The person that bought the HD880s loves them.

I did not experience boomy or over powering bass, so not sure the port plugs would have improved the sound. In fact, I found the sound to be very well balanced.

The decision to sell was partly based on the vintage speakers I already have (ADS L810, JBL L100, Pioneer HPM100 and Klipsch Heresy) in addition to Dynaudio Contour 1.8 MKII, Neat Critique and Dynaco A25 on the way.

All my other vintage speakers are with flaws, less flaws than the HD880. The difference is that the others each do other things very well. I can't say the HD880s did anything very well. Just my opinion.
 
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In fact, I found the sound to be very well balanced.
You say this.......then you say this:
I can't say the HD880s did anything very well. Just my opinion.
Yeah, it's your opinion, but frankly, I am confused.

The other speakers you mentioned, I was fortunate to have heard those models in person, except for two pairs you mention. I was impressed, indeed. There are just particular criteria in sound parameters that I like, and the Ed May Designs fit that criteria with flying colors.

Another note, you said "base", of which I assume you mean "bass".

so not sure the port plugs would have improved the sound.
Did you play them and plug the ports with original style closed cell foam? I have, so I can attest to the improvements with bass response. With plugs in the bass is less "peaky", while being flatter and linear.
 
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